Apparatus



5 Sheets-Sheet 1 ul 12 1927. J z PODHRADSKY FABRIC TRIMMING APPARATUSFiled Sept. 23. 1925 A TTOR/VEYS 1 12 19 y 27 z. PODHRADSKY FABRICTRIMMING APPARATUS Filed Sent. 25, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet Z l/Vl/ENTORzaz/v/m Pom/M0510 WITNESS 4 TTUR/VEYS July 12 1927.

Z. PODHRADSKY FABRIC TRIMMING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 25. 1925 WITNESS 3Sheets-Sheet 3 l/Vl/ENTOR Zom/m Pow/M05 WWW ATTORNEYS Patented July 12,1927.

UNITED STA -2s PATENT OFFICE.

ZDENKO PODHRADSKY, OF ASTORIA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO H. R. MALLINSON CO.INC., 01 NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

FABRIC-TRIMMING APPARATUS.

Application filed September 23, 1925. Serial No. 57,990.

The invention relates to fabrics woven with a design which requirescertain por' tions of the material to be cut away and the remainingdesign to be closely trimmed to produce the finished product.Heretofore, the final cutting away of superfluous material to trim theedges of the design, which constitutes a delicate operation, has beenperformed by hand; this requires the use of highly skilled operators andis time consuming and adds considerably to the cost of the finishedmaterial. The object of-the invention is to provide a novel apparatuswhereby the required close trimming of designs of the aforesaid fabricsmay be me chanically performed in an efficient and speedy manner,without requiring the attention of any specially trained operators.Other more specific objects will appear from the description hereinafterand the features of novelty, will be pointed out in the claims. In theaccompanying drawings, which show an example of the invention withoutdefining its limits,-Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic section of the apparatus;Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section onthe line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view showing certain ofthe elements of Fig. 3 in a different position; Fig. 5 is a fragmentaryside elevation of the apparatus; Fig. 6 is a combination detail viewillustrating a preferred form of tension bar included in the apparatus;Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic section showing another form of the apparatusand Figs. 8, 9, and 10 are face views of an example of the fabric whichis operated on by the machine.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive, the

apparatus or'machine comprises a suitable carry discs and 20 at theiropposite ends respectively as shown in Fig. 5. Supportmg members or bars21 and 21 have their opposite ends connected by means of crank pins 22with the discs 20 and 20 respectively, the arrangement preferably beingsuch that said members 21 and 21 are reciprocated in circular paths inopposite di rections with respect to each other; upon their inner faces,the members 21 and 21 are provided respectively with brushes orequivalent devices 23 and 23 which partake of the reciprocatingmovements of said memhere 21 and 21. The reciprocation of the members 21and 21 and their brushes 23 and 23 may be accomplished in any convenientmanner as for instance by means of spiral gears 24 located uponintermediate portions of the stud shafts 19 and meshing with sp1- ralgears 25 fixed upon a shaft 26. The latter, as shown in Fig. 2, may bejournalled in bearings 27 mounted upon a frame 15 and in a bearingbracket 28 located apart from said frame 15 and is provided with apulley 29 operatively connected, by means of a belt 30, with the pulley31 of an electric motor 32 which constitutes the means whereby the shaft26 and its associated elements are driven.

Tension bars 33 are mounted upon the bed 17 and are located in pairsupon opposite sides of the reciprocating paths. of the brushes 23 and 23as shown in Figs. 1 and 5; the bars are preferably of semi-circular formin cross-section and are transversely grooved as indicated at 3 1 inFig. 6 or otherwise roughened for the purpose to be more fully describedhereinafter. I

The apparatus further includes a shearing mechanism whereby the trimmingoperation is performed as will be set forth more fully hereinafter; inthe illustrated example, this shearing mechanism consists of astationary knife 35 located upon the frame 15 and a shearing roller 36mounted upon said frame in cooperative relation to said knifeas shown inFig. 1. The knife '35 and shearing roller 36 are located in operativeproximity to a channel-iron secured upon the frame 15,

the forward flange a of said channel-iron being preferably somewhathigher than the rear flange b thereof as shown in Fig. 1.

The shearing roller 36 may be driven in any suitable manner as by meansof a belt 38 connected with a pulley 39 on the shearing roller shaft andwith a pulley 40 -carried by a suitably mounted countershaft/ll which inturn is driven through the medium of-a belt 4-2 connected withthevpulley of an lllltlrll trim beingeasrly performed and reelectricmotor 43 shown inv Fig.1. u In addition to the parts so far described,

the machine includes brackets44 adapted to i removably receive thetrunnions 45 of a roller 46 on which the fabr1c47 is wound in the formof a roll 0.

to predetermine the path of movement of the fabric 47 before it reachesthe brushes 23 and 23 and additional rolls 51, 52,53, and

54, are provided to direct the fabric 47 after it leaves the. shearingmechanism; if desired, one or more tension bars may be included in themachine at suitable points.

a pulley 57 located on acountershaft 58 the latter carries a secondpulley 59 which is connected by means of a belt 0 with a pulley 61.fixed upon the countershaft 41 as illustrated in Fig. 1. To improve theoperation ofthemachine and more specifically the feed of the fabric 47 agear wheel 62 inay be mounted upon the shaft of the roll 52 in mesh witha pinion 63 carriedby the countershaft 58. ments shown diagrammaticallyin Fig.1 are suitably mounted in any conventional manner to provide thedesired construction and arrangement. 1

The fabric 47 upon which themaohine is designed to operate comprises afoundation material (Z upon which the designe is produced in the well.known way; the design is such that it covers only predetermined parts ofthe fabric is shown at various stages look- Fabric rolls 48, 49, and50,; are located at suitable points on the frame 15 A take-up roller 46is provided for r e-winding the fabric 47 after it has been trimmed, the

roller 46 being driven, for instance, by means of a belt 56 which isconnected with:

It will be understood thatthe eleof threads or fibres g in about themanner indicated at the right hand portion of Fig. 8,. this operation,which may be 't'ermedjthe quiring no great amount of care or skill onthe part of the operators. a The apparatus hereinbefore described isintended to perform the more diflicult and final trimming operationwhereby the design is: positively outlined by the removal of the fringeg and substantially all tracesof the loose threads or fibres 9 areremoved therefrom as indicated in Fig. 10. The fabric 47 in thecondition shown, by way of example, at theright hand portion of Fig. 8is rolled upon the roller 46 and the trunnions 45. If the character ofthe fibres or threads '9 is such that they possess an inherent stiffnessand tendency to lie flat and return to such condition when the initialtrim has been completed, as indicated at the right inFig. 8, the fabric47. prior to being rolled on the. roller 46 is dampened to an extentsufficient to impart to said initially cut fibresv 0r threads g theproperty of retaining an upright position relatively. to the surfaceplane of the foundation material (Z as will app ar more fullyhereinafter. From the roll 0, the fabric passes about the rolls 418, 49,and 50, in sequence, as indicated in l and over thetension members 33ofthe bed 17 and tothe inside of the brushes 23; from the final member33 the fabric 47 passes at a sharp bend over the flange a of'the Vchannel iron 37 beneath the roller 51 and over the tension bar 55 andshaft 41 and then to the roller 52. After passing about and between'therollers 52 and 53 and over thesecond tens-ion bar 55, the fabric 47passes about the roller 54 and is wound. up on the take-up roller 46. Itwill be understood that the feedqingof the fabric 47 through the machineis brought about by the action of the feed rollers 52 and 53, and thetake-up roller 4,andthat said fabric is under a tension during itstravel from the roller 46 to the roller 46. Y Y

During such feeding of the fabric 47, the brushes 23 are reciprocated incircular paths in opposite directions with respect to each other and aremoved'toward the bed 17 in anoperative brushing movement and away fromthe same, by the action of the discs 20 V and 20 so that said brushes inthose parts of. their paths which lie nearest to the bed 17, develop abrushing action in the direc-' tion transversely of the travel of thefabric 47, the path of which may be said to be ill tangent to the pathsof said brushes; the latter preferably operate in alternate sequence.Thus, as the fabric 47 passes over the lowermost pair of tension members33 in Figs. 1 and 5, with that surface of the fabric upon which thefibres or threads 9 appear, facing said brushes, the brush 23 willengage the surface of said fabric with a brushing action and accordinglywill brush up those fibres or threads 9 which at this stage point in adirection opposite to the brushing direction, so that said fibres orthreads assume and retain the position indicated at g in Figs. 1. and 5.After the fabric 47 has been thus acted on by the brush 23 it will passalong and be acted on in a similar manner by the brush 23 so that any ofthe fibres g which may have escaped the brushing action of the brush 28will be brushed into the upright position g by the action of the brush23; the arrangement is such that the fabric 47, as it is engaged by thebrushes 23 and 23 is flexed inwardly between the two pairs of tensionmembers 33, and is thus en gaged under a pressure by said brushes,whereby the brushing action of the latter is made positive andeliicient. The roughened surface of the meml'iers 83 preventsdisplacement of the fabric thereon in the direction of the length ofsaid members 33, by the brushing action of the brushes 23 and 23. Inthis. condition, said fibres or threads in the upright positionindicated atg are carried to the shearing mechanism and because of thesharp bend which the fabric takes atthe flange (4 of the channel-iron 37approach the knife 35 in a position substantially perpendicular to itscutting edge. As the feed of the fabric 47 continues the combined actionof the shearing roll 36 and the knife 35 will shear off the projectingfibres or threads in close proximity to the boundaries of the design andthus will closely trim said design so that when the fabric hascompletely passed through the machine and wound up on the take-up roll46 said fabric will have the appearance indicated in Fig. 9. The take-uproll 46 with the partly trimn'ied roll of fabric thereon is then placedin the brackets 44 and the roller 46 or its equivalent is placed in theposition previ ously occupied by the roll 46 and the fabric again passedthrough the machine to trim off the remaining fibres or threads 9 sothat at the end of this operation, the fabric is completely trimmed andthe design 6 appears as in Fig. 10.

To avoid the necessity for passing the fabris 41" through the machinetwice to complete the trimming operation, the arrange ment shown in Fig.7 may be utilized. This arrangement comprises in addition to thebrushing and trimming mechanism shown in Figs. 1 to o inclusive anadditional trimming and cutting mechanism comprising a bed l7 upon whichtension members 33 are mounted in the same way as in the form previouslydescribed and which are located in pairs upon opposite sides of brushesor their equivalent 23 ant 23.- These brushes are mounted uponsupporting members 21 and 2f respectively, the latter being connectedwith discs and 20 respectively. The rotation of the discs 20" and 20" isbrought about through the medium of the spiral gears 24-" meshing withspiral gears 25, the latter being carried by a shaft 26 which is driventhrough the medium of a belt 30 connected with a pulley Lb upon theshaft 26 and with the pulley 31 of the motor in this apparatus, thefabric 47, after it leaves the roller 51 travels about rollers 65 andand then over the tension members 33 to the cutting mechanism. T helatter comprises a knife 35 and a shearing roller 35*, the latter beingconnected by means of a belt 38 with the shearing roll 36. A belt 38connects the slit-airing roll 36 with a source of power such as a motor43 as diagrammatically indicated in llig. 7. A clninncl-iron $.37 is proided in close proximity to the knife 35 over the forward flange a ofwhich the fabric travels to the roller 51 and from thence over thetension bar 55; after l aving the latter, the fabric may traverse a pathcorresponding to the path of the fabric shown in Fig. 1 after saidfabric leaves the tension bar 55 therein. it will be understood that inthe arrangement shown in F '4', the brushes 22-3 and 23 perform theirbrushing functions preferably in alternate sequence in directionsopposite to the brushing action of the brushes 23 and 23. Thus, afterthe fabric 4-? has passed the brushes 28 and 23 and the cuttingmechanism 85, 36, and 37 whereby some of the fibres or threads in theposition indicated at g are trimmed away, said fabric in continuingitscourse passes into operative relation to the brushes 23 and 28. Theselatter brushes raise those fibres or threads 9 which have not beentrimmed away to positions perpendicular to the face of the fabric asindicated at 9'' so that these fibres or threads are in a position to beefficiently cut away by the action of the shearing mechanismv 35, 36,and 3?. Under such condition, as the fabric is finally wound upon thetakeup roll 46 or its equivalent, it will immeditely be in the conditionshown in Fig. 10 of the drawings without requiring said fabric to bepassed through the machine a second time in reversed relation. Themachine is extremely simple in construction and performs the operationof trimming the design closely and effectively in a rapid and accuratemanner without requiring the attention of any skilled operators andwithout danger of injury to they particular fabric, which ofttimes is ofa very delicate nature.

Various changes in the specific form shown and described may be madewithin the scope of the claims without departing from the spirit of myinvention.

I claim:

1. A trimming machine comprising a bed, feeding mechanism for'feeding' aweb of fabric over said bed, said fabric including a design the outlinesof which are bounded by loose thread ends, brushes moving to and fromsaid fabric and transversely thereof effective upon said fabric to raisesaid loose ends to upright positions thereon and cutting mechanism inthe path of said fabric for cutting away said upright loose ends toclosely trim the aforesaid design along its 3. A trimming machinecomprising a bed,

feeding mechanism for feeding a web of fabric over said bed, said fabricincluding a design the outlines of which are bounded by loose threadends, a pair of brushes each movable as a unit to and from said fabricin an orbital path to sweep said; fabric transversely thereof, saidbrushes being succesively effective upon said fabric to raise said looseends to upright positions thereon and cutting mechanism in the path ofsaid fabric for cutting away said loose endsto closely trim theaforesaid design along its outlines.

4t. A trimming machine comprising a bed, feeding mechanism for feeding aweb of fabric over said bed, said fabric including a design the outlinesof which are bounded by loose thread ends, a first pair of reciprocatingbrushes successively effective upon said fabric to raise those looseends which point in one direction, to upright positions on said fabric,cutting mechanism in the path of said fabric for cutting away saiduprigl'it loose ends to closely trim the aforesaid design along parts ofits outlines, a second pair of reciprocating brushes successivelyeffective upon said fabric to raise those loose ends which point in theopposite direction, to upright positions on said fabric and additionalcutting mechanism in the path of said fabric for cutting away the lastnamed upright loose ends to closely trim the afore-' said design alongthe remainder of its outlines.

5. A trimming machine comprising a bed, tension members fixed thereonand having roughened surfaces, feeding mechanism for feeding a web offabric acrosssaid bed in contact with said tension members, said fabricincluding a design the outlines of which are bounded'by loose; threadends, elements adapted to brushtransversely of the fabric, said tensionmembers being immediately adjacent saidbrushing elements, allcooperating to raise said loose ends to upright positions on said fabricand cutting mechanism in the patlrof said fabric for cutting away saidupright loose ends to closely trim the design along its outlines.

6. A trimming machine comprising a sup- 7 porting frame, a bed thereon,tension menibers fixed on said bed and provided with transverselygrooved surfaces, feeding mechanism for feeding a 'webof fabric acrosssaid bed in contact with said tension members, said fabric including adesign the outlines of which are bounded by loose threads, discsrotatably mounted on said frame in cooperating pairs, carrying barseccentrically connected with each pair of discs, brushes mounted uponsaid bars,

mechanism for rotating said discs whereby said brushes are reciprocatedin circular paths and effective upon said fabric between said tensionmembers to raise said loose ends to upright positions on said fabric andcutting mechanism in the path of said fabric for cutting away saidupright, loose ends to closely trim the design along its outlines.

7. The method of triiiiinin fabrics having designs with bordering threadends, which consists in feeding the fabric, as the feeding progressesbrushing in one direction some-of the bordering thread ends to uprightretained positions with respect to the surface of the fabric, trimmingaway said upright threads as the feeding of the fabric progresses,thereafter:bru'shing the remain ingbordering thread endsiii'anotherdirection to upright retained positions with respect to the surface ofthe fabric and like- "ise trin'iin ing away said [last named uprightthreads.

8. Tire method of ing designs with bordering thread ends which consistsin feeding and tensioning the fabric over supports, brushing said fabricin one direction transversely of the direction of the travel of the.fabric to raise some of the bordering threads to upright position,thereafter shearing said threadv ends, and subsequently brushing thefabric in the other direction transversely of the direction of travel ofthe fabric to raise the rest of the thread ends to upright position andthereafter shearing said last named thread ends.

trimming fabrics h d 9. A trimming machine for fabric hav ing a designwith bordering thread ends comprising; means extending transversely ofthe path of the fabric for feeding and applying longitudinal tension tosaid fabric, transversely extending supporting members for said fabric,a brush between and closely adjacent said supporting members movable inan orbit in av plane transverse to the direction of travel of saidfabric for raising said bordering thread ends to an upright position,and trimming means for said bordering thread ends.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand. ZDENKO PODHRADSKY.

